New Texas Tech pharmacy dean hopes to continue school's success

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s new dean of pharmacy said he wants to continue the school’s successes in research and train future pharmacists to better work with patients in pharmacies and clinical environments.

“I’d like to take it from there and make it even better,” Quentin Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of gems here.”

Smith, 58, is an original school faculty member, a former senior associate dean and was a distinguished professor in 2007, center spokeswoman Beth Phillips said. In 2009, he was named the sixth recipient of the Grover E. Murray professorship, which is the highest honor the school gives faculty members, she said.

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1976 and earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Utah in 1980, the school website said.

Smith replaces founding Dean Arthur Nelson, who left in July after serving as dean since 1993, school officials said.

Smith repeatedly referred to fostering a new way of practicing pharmacy in which pharmacists and other medical professionals work more closely to ensure patients receive the most effective, efficient care. Pharmacists also should take a more active role in counseling customers who are making decisions about which drugs will best address their health needs, he said.

“(Pharmacists) are kind of behind that counter,” Smith said. “Our dream is to get them out of the counter area, out in the main pharmacy.

“One area that we really need to work on in this country is drug counseling and drug management, especially for people taking multiple drugs.”

Smith said if the health care system in the U.S. adapts to a team-based treatment system, pharmacists could see an increased demand for their expertise in the coming years.

“Now the focus is on the end result … the outcome of the patient and what’s the most efficient outcome,” Smith said. “I think regardless of the political spectrum, I think most people believe we’ve got to change our health care system.”

Smith said the school is investing in cutting-edge educational tools going forward.

“They’re going to put in one or two new buildings on the campus just directed toward simulations where if your job is to do medical therapy or to treat patients … they’ll have this computerized patient and they can do mock trials with them,” Smith said.

“And you can have the doctor, you can have the nurse, you can have the pharmacist … training for their different roles together as a team. It’s really nifty.”